I remember seeing this match on Prime Network late on Friday Night in 1996. I had not been watching ECW very long. I had been reading about it for years in Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

Before the match Joey Styles explains that Raven has to defend the ECW title against the number 1 international contender. When Lynard Skynard’s Freebird starts playing. Terry Gordy burst thru the curtain and the fans are going nut. Huge Terry chant breaks out. Once the match starts Gordy just clobbers Raven. Beating him all over the ECW arena.

By the time they are back in the ring, Raven is a bloody mess. Gordy precedes to beat Raven all over the ring. Raven only briefly gets on offense when Stevie attempts to interfere. Raven punches Gordy in the balls. He takes the chance to pull out some barbwire. But Gordy again knocks the poo out of Raven and precedes to wrap Raven’s head in a barbwire halo.

Gordy decides to end it and slap on the Oriental spike. This would of been the end, if not for Super Nova and “Dancing” Stevie Richards try to save Raven. Both of them together lack the power to do it. Im not sure Gordy even notices them. But Tommy Dreamer removes them from the ring anyway. But that brings out “Prime Time” Brian Lee, who takes out Tommy with a huge chokeslam. But unfortunately for Lee, Gordy powerbombs him to remove him from the match.

Now Gordy is back on Raven. Driving his barbwire covered head into the turnbuckle. The ref tries to stop him and Gordy pops him one. The ref takes an awesome flying bump. Stevie Richards is back in the ring hits the superkick and Raven rolls up Gordy for the quick three count.

This brings in the Sandman who starts hitting anything that moves with his kendo stick. He goes after Raven who uses Sandman’s son as a human shield. This leaves Sandman a drunken crying mess.

Now to be honest this match has its flaws. Its a mess in a lot of ways. But I still love it. This is exactly the way you reintroduce an old legend into your promotion. He beat the hell out of the champion and lost by slipping on a banana peel. Gordy looked like a huge badass and Raven looked great for somehow surviving it.

Now in reality Terry Gordy was really done as a wrestler. He went into a coma in Japan years before and when he awoken he was never the same. Even though he always tried his best. He could not be the Terry Gordy he was. But this match was so good people were convinced that the real Terry Gordy was back. This match was all Raven. He did an amazing job bumping and selling for Terry Gordy.

The match was so convincing that the WWF rehired Gordy to play the Executioner in a feud with the Undertaker.